Although swings, slides, climbers, "monkey bars" and other pieces of playground-type equipment are common in gym sets found in the backyards of many homes with small children, it is relatively uncommon to find a yard with any kind of carousel. Typical playground and schoolyard carousels are heavy and bulky. Their designs are generally not conducive for downsizing to a smaller, portable unit. Portability of a backyard carousel is important to enable mowing of grass therebeneath or placement indoors for storage during winter. Large gym sets remain outdoors all year and must be mowed around (and trimmed) if grass is permitted to grow where they enter the ground.
Some small units have been on and off the market in a relatively short time, apparently being unable to withstand the rigorous activity of children. One such unit is free-standing, and because of its potential to tip over, was designed with a very low center of gravity. Instead of allowing the children to be seated with their legs dangling as is customary on park or school playground merry-go-rounds, they have to stand on a platform which is only about six inches above ground level. Another backyard unit is designed as an injection-molded one piece very low children-seating section for tiny tots. Its entire upper surface is enclosed, either requiring an adult to rotate the unit or requiring the children to be seated facing outwardly in order to use their feet to propel the unit. This design necessarily requires a fairly large and costly mold to produce. Still another known carousel attaches at the upper end of a long vertical center post to a horizontal cross-beam or cantilevered arm of a gym set, with the lower end of the post being supported either in the ground, asphalt or concrete. It too has a relatively low "standing" platform, sufficient only for two children to play on at one time. It is small in diameter and high in overall length, thus it is doubted that it can develop sufficient centrifugal force to rotate or to allow coasting for more than a few revolutions. For the children to propel the latter unit by themselves, it would require that they stand with one leg on the platform and use the other to reach backward or sideways to the ground level to activate or continue movement of the platform. Possibly, they could run alongside the carousel and jump onto the platform once it is moving, but this has the possibility of child endangerment. With only nominal coasting capability, frequent reaching down would become necessary to foot-pedal the unit with one leg.